Tag Archives: #yoga

Never in my life have I felt so simultaneously busy and at peace. I have chosen to put a lot onto my plate right now and I am managing it well. I have taken on 2 doula clients due in April and June, and I am awaiting the birth of my good friend’s baby in May. At Brightmont Academy we have had an influx of students and I have been working around 35 hours per week consistently. I also have 2 private tutoring student’s who are keeping me busy with 3-4 additional hours each week. Add to all that my monthly Mindful Queers and Allies Reading Circle (even though it does focus on meditation and mindfulness), planning a fundraiser for SPIRAL Collective, and hosting guests for 2 nights through AirBnB, and I’ve really had my hands full this month.

Managing my calendar, my sanity, and my home life have required immense focus and vigilance on my part. Even though I tried to take care of myself by sleeping and eating well, I still ended up with mild cold symptoms by the end of week two. With a full weekend of rest I am feeling myself again today, and I have vowed to take it a little easier moving forward. My Midwestern American upbringing urges me to work hard and work long, so I can have trouble truly relaxing once it’s time. That’s where meditation comes in.

Once you’ve completed your work for the day – and this isn’t defined by when your to-do list is complete necessarily, but by when you decide to call it quits for the day – try sitting in a quiet space and consciously reminding your mind to let go of your (busy, stressed, recurring) thoughts. Each time you are reminded of an idea, or something you should have done, simply try to let it go. If imagery is helpful to you, imagine this: each time you have a thought, place it on a cloud and watch it float away. You can also observe your breathing if this helps you direct your thoughts; think to yourself, “In, out, present, moment” with each in- and out-breath. As you watch your thoughts, try to watch them as a mere observer, not a judge. If your mind keeps returning to your work or your day, don’t get frustrated. Meditation isn’t the lack of thought, it’s this continual return to being the observer of your thoughts.

– Cheyenne

So what have I accomplished in this busy month? Many things!

Perfect #13 Recipes and Go on dates with friends #26 times

I was asked to bring my famous Sausage Puff Pastry to Queer Vegan Thanksgiving, after my friend E.G. and her girlfriend Jenn were over for dinner at our place! I wanted to impress them, so I picked one of my fanciest cookbooks: Vegan Junk Food!

Everyone at dinner loved the sausage puff, which is simply veggie sausage, Vegenaise, herbs, and onions wrapped in a puff pastry roll! I was so happy when everyone asked for the recipe. Not only did our Thanksgiving centerpiece follow the Buddhist principle of “doing no harm”, but it was ad decadent and delicious as any Turkey I can remember from my childhood! If I’m going to enjoy the nostalgia of my childhood foods, the modern equivalent better damn well be delicious!

NEXT!

I also was…

My Unabashed-Self #22 Times in Public…

At an Ugly Cookie Party in December! Once again my friend E.G. was gracious enough to host us for a food-related event. I am so #grateful to have such wonderful vegan cooks around me that love to share their home and recipes!

So E.G. supplied the Ugly Cookie materials – everything from the cookies to the frosting and sprinkles. All we and her 12 closest other friends had to do was make the worlds nicest – or more likely ugliest – cookies in the world! It was a great opportunity to show my complete ineptitude at making frosted sugar cookies! And ugly or not, they were still Mmmmmmmm-rific! If you’re in the Twin Cities area and you’d like the invite, hit me up on Facebook!

In the hopes of owning my own business, I need to get out of debt and start saving! I’ve had more time than money lately so I’ve been looking for ways to bring in additional income on the side. This book caught my attention at the library yesterday and I decided to take it home. After flipping through it I found a myriad of potential profit-makers that have a “big upside and not much competition”.

From among the list of low-to-no-cost startups I’ve compiled my Top 7:

6. Home Organizing Consultant
If you’re neat and organized you can start your own business de-cluttering garages, bedrooms, kitchens, closets, or home offices!

5. Used clothing seller
You’d be surprised what vintage Levi’s go for on eBay these days. If you’re willing to do the research and scope out garage sales and thrift stores for deals then this could be a money-maker for you.

4. Used book seller
Many used books can be turned for a profit on Amazon, depending on the title and quality. You can get started right away by selling a book online. Once you get some momentum and experience you can invest as little as $100 into selected books. And unlike physical bookstores it doesn’t matter how many books you have or what genres; if you have the title they want at a good price then they buy it.The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site by Steve Weberhttp://www.amazon.com/The-Home-Based-Bookstore-Business-Selling/dp/0977240606

3. Diaper Cleaning Service
This idea may seem silly or super-gross to some, but I liked the idea of it for some reason. Many parents have been returning to cloth diapers in recent years, but they haven’t been returning to washing them. Now that cloth diaper services exist many parents prefer to have their dirty diapers picked up weekly, and it can even save them money over disposable diapers.http://www.realdiaperindustry.org has information on the cloth diaper industry

2. Specialized Tutor
If you’ve worked in schools previously (or currently) the idea of being a tutor may have occurred to you. As a teacher and tutor myself I can guarantee that the most money is to be made in starting your own business. Tutoring companies are great for gaining experience, but they charge the families upwards of $50-75 per hour and give you $15 or $20 if you’re lucky. Why not go into business with families directly and undercut those larger organizations? The only downside is that while you’re building your name and customer base, you may run into difficulties with families who just want to go with a company they trust. Thankfully not everyone is satisfied with those “big-box” tutoring groups and there’s still space for independent tutors.http://www.tutoringservices.com – free meeting place for tutors and clients

1. Pet Services
Pet services gets my number 1 because of the ease of access and the extremely low startup costs. The book actually breaks different pet services up, but I’ve rolled them together into my new temporary business. You’re looking at Minneapolis’ newest doggy poop scooper! I’ll be offering yard cleaning services, litter box cleaning, dog walking, pet sitting, and light grooming. You can do this too! All you need is a love for animals and a lack of squeamishness!

So far over the past 6 months I have cut our debt in half and gotten current on my student loans through focused effort and planning. That may be what others would call “progress,” but as always, rebuilding your finances takes longer than you like. Celebrating your accomplishments can be hard when you’re not yet arrived at your ultimate goal. It’s hard specifically not to get caught up with wanting things to be different than they are now, or wanting more money, or wishing you could make things happen right away. That’s living in the future, which won’t help us gain anything except a vague yet persistent dissatisfaction. I’ve been trying to counteract my impatience to reach my goals by employing mindfulness techniques. When I remind myself that happiness is always accessible to me in the present moment, I can find things to be grateful for right now. Here are some tips for finding happiness in the present moment!

~ Day 20 ~~ Friday, January 2nd, 2015 ~Turn your car into a mobile classroom, a university on wheels.– Brian Tracy

Cheyenne-
Completely my anchor habit for 20 minutes. I meditated on the qualities I need to become, repeating them 3 times each. Did back bending poses from Om Yoga. Held bridge pose, and bridge pose with one leg up both for 10 breaths. Finally held my headstand for a full 10 breaths!

Today’s action: Identify some passive time in your daily routine that you can put to better use, be it by meditating, being mindful, focusing on gratitude or solving problems, or listening to something educational or uplifting. Then get set up, whatever that entails: downloading podcasts to your iPod, learning a meditation routine, etc., so that beginning today or tomorrow, you can start putting that passive-mind time to good use.

I already spend my time meditating during my drives to and from work! I shouldn’t be too proud, it’s not like I do it every day. But I recently mentioned to my partner Remy that I would like to focus more on meditating while driving. I said, “I feel like I spend more time being mindful than I do driving mindlessly on my way to work, but on my drive home I spend more time distracted by far. Isn’t that interesting? I’ve been trying to be more focussed and sustained in my meditation during my drives, because I feel like I do have some mental energy to expend. When do you have “autopilot” time that you could be using in a focused way?

I’ve also been listening to books on tape since October, including The People’s History of the United States, which I’ve really been enjoying. It’s a history from the people’s perspective, the subjugated and oppressed rather than the conquerors. The story is inspiring, sad, empowering, and uplifting. Back to Wake Up – 31 days to take charge of your life, I really like Matt Frazier’s encouragement to balance productivity and down-time. He says, “Again, I’m not overlooking the necessity to “just be” sometimes…” which is important to remember. He isn’t encouraging us to spend every single moment being productive, he is encouraging us to be mindful of how we spend our time – be it meditating, or listening to an audiobook or music. Most people need more “just be” time, and I really respect a plan that encourages time to just be with yourself.

~ Day 19 ~~ Thursday, January 1st, 2015 ~
Push Through the DipNothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.– Epictetus

Cheyenne-
Completed my anchor habit for about 20 minutes with Remy. Led a great sitting meditation, then warm-up, then sitting poses from Om Yoga. Felt great to do it together… But then afterwards Remy told me honestly that he doesn’t like it when I ask him to do yoga the night before – it makes him feel obligated and cranky about it in the morning. He shared that he’d prefer if I simply told him in the morning, “I’m going to do my practice and you’re welcome to join me if you like.” I guess I can understand not wanting to do yoga out of requirement. I would always prefer to do yoga when I feel it’s my choice rather than something I have to do. I want him to feel good about yoga so I’m going to try to take this approach moving forward.

We can all learn something from my interaction with my partner this morning. We can make people feel negative thoughts or positive thoughts simply by demanding or leaving the opportunity open. Small differences in tone, demeanor, and word choice can make all the difference. When do you guilt someone you love into something because you don’t think they will do it unless they feel obliged to you?

Today’s action:

Do what it takes to keep your motivation strong. You’re over halfway through this program, but there are still a lot of actions to complete and changes to make. Catch up, get organized, review what you’ve done so far, and give yourself a dose of inspiration or an external reward.

Today I reviewed my notes and journals, and updated my business journal. I feel good about my progress, and I hope to do my weekly review this Sunday! I also took a nice shower and prepared for tomorrow by packing and organizing my work bag! Feelin’ great.

~ Day 18 ~~ Wednesday, December 31st, 2014 ~ Perform an 80/20 AnalysisLearn how to separate the majors and the minors. A lot of people don’t do well simply because they major in minor things.– Jim Rohn

Cheyenne-
Completed my anchor habit for 37 minutes. Meditated on the qualities I need to become – see Day 11 – for 5 minutes, then started my yoga. Decided to do a strength routine today, which included 3 sun salutations, the balancing poses (for Wednesday), boat post, some inversions, and twists. Boat pose is especially challenging for me. Most poses I tried to hold for 5 or 10 breaths, which added another layer of strength to the routine.

Warm-up and sun salutes each took 5 minutes, and the rest of the routine lasted 22 minutes. Did headstand instead of forearm stand and fell out of it the wrong way. Hurt my fingers. Made myself get back up and come down the right way before moving on. Was kinda scared I would hurt my fingers again. Did it anyway. Felt good.
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There’s a productivity principle borrowed from economics known as the Pareto Principle, which says that 80 percent of results come from about 20 percent of activities. Common examples:

✦ 80 percent of your business comes from the top 20 percent of your clients

✦ 80 percent of your fitness gains come from the most effort-filled 20 percent of your time in the gym or your running workouts

✦ 80 percent of the work you accomplish in a day comes from 20 percent of your work tasks

✦ You can clean 80 percent of your home in 20 percent of the time it takes you to do a full, detailed cleaning

The idea, then, is that you can drastically reduce the amount of stress in your life and time you spend on work, fitness, and just about anything else by focusing only on the 20 percent of activities that produce 80 percent of your results.

Today’s action: Use your 24-hour time inventory from a few days ago to figure out which 20 percent of your activities are responsible for 80 percent of your results in a given day as they pertain to your goals. For each of your one-year goals, identify the half dozen “majors,” and consider how you can increase the time and focus you spend on those activities, while eliminating, delegating, or at least reducing your time and energy expenditures on the “minors.”

80/20 Analysis

I feel like this is a little redundant for me. When I am focused I am usually focused, and when I’m not I’m not… And because of that I liked yesterdays exercise better: focus on what time you spend procrastinating and could cut out. I can do that. 80/20 is definitely true for my life, I probably do spend about 20 percent of my time getting 80 percent of my useful things done, but I spend ALL of that 20 percent on focused work. I just need to increase the percentage of my time spent on focused work… which is what yesterday was all about. I guess I can say generally that I am more productive at the beginning of the week, and after long spurs of unproductivity. I am more productive in the late morning and when I am home alone. There’s nothing I can really outsource… chores are really the only thing I do each day and we also can’t afford a housekeeper so I can’t cut that out. The other things like TV time and smoking can simply be eliminated, and I should have plenty of time with that alone. I don’t know if I’m thinking about it right but I just don’t get it. I’ll keep thinking on it though…

….

After feeling bad for a few days for not really doing the above journal, I ultimately decided to forgive myself for not doing it. It’s okay if every single topic in this book doesn’t resonate with me, and I am proud of myself for writing what I felt. Sometimes we just have to offer ourselves kindness and not force things that don’t feel productive or joyful.

Do you end your personal yoga or yoga class with a savasana meditation? It’s wonderful. You can practice this pose in bed at night to help you get to sleep too. You simply lie down on your back with your palms facing up, letting your feet fall apart, and you can focus on your breathing, or you can focus your attention on each part of your body slowly from your feet to your head. It can be very relaxing, but it is also a very challenging pose.

Savasana, or corpse pose, is practice for death. It is very easy for them in to wonder during corpse pose. It may wander to an earlier time in your day and relive a conversation or jump forward to things you need to accomplish. Then come the worry that you might have said something wrong, or your might forget that thing you need to get done. Sitting with that discomfort is where the real magic takes place. After a while you will have a thought that you enjoy, or perhaps dislike, and you won’t want to stop having it for whatever reason. This is were the rubber really meets the road: once you realize your mind has wandered, bring it back to your breathing, or your body, and come back to savasana.

Commitment:
If I gave up my iPad time (except for Wake Up), and limited my chatting and TV time to 30 minutes per day I could save 5 hours per day, which is 35 hours per week, 140 hours per month, and 1680 hours per year. That’s a whole 70 days of my year.

I could really use 70 days to commit to my business, finances, and future. And I bet you could too! Who doesn’t need 70 days? My goal is that by the end of the January 2015 I will limit my TV watching and smoking time to 30 minutes per day, and I will not use the iPad except to do Wake Up and whatever else I choose to do intentionally for 1 hour each day.

What do you spend too much unconscious or conscious time doing each day? What could you use that time for instead? Are you ready to be intentional about how you live your life? Comment below. ❤

Like this:

Woohoo! Today I didn’t learn anything except that I was right all along about… Bathrooms! Yep that’s right… This may seem totally off on a tangent but bear with me hear and you too could learn something today! With any luck you’ll have been right all along too!

So I was just watching Mythbusters and this new episode in season 14 really caught my interest!

Down and Dirty/Earthquake Survival (Season 14 – Episode 3) was full of bathroom myths, and the one that caught my attention was related to the most used and dirtiest bathroom stalls in public restrooms. The myth postulates that because people think the first stall closest to the door is the dirtiest, they avoid it, or because of privacy reasons people will be more likely to choose the stall furthest from the door. They tested their hypothesis at a public restroom using ingenious door counters on the stalls. They tested for “dirtiness” by thoroughly cleaning the bathroom beforehand and then hilariously swabbing the toilets afterward.

So needless to say I paused the show and turned to my partner of 6 years and said, “this is a really important episode for me. I always do the same thing in public restrooms probably because I assume everyone thinks like me.”

“Oh yeah?,” He said, “what do you do?”

“Well I walked in there once a long time ago and thought, ‘I don’t want to use the first one, everyone uses the first one, so I’ll go in the second one, it’s probably the cleanest.’ Only right after I had that thought I had another one, ‘Oh but if you think that, so do other people! Everyone probably actually uses the second one!’ And ever since then I’ve always used the first stall, privacy or no. I believed it was the cleanest.”

And since you’ve probably guessed since the title of my post was “I was right all along” that I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG! but…

The results of the Mythbusters study was that not only was the first stall closest to the door the least used, but it was by far the cleanest. The 2nd stall was the most used and the second dirtiest, the third was the next most used and the dirtiest, and the last one was the second least used and second cleanest.

So to sum it up for you, your best bet is using stall number 1 (closest to the door) or stall number 4 (or the last stall) in a 4-stall restroom! Probably don’t use the second stall!

Book: The Mindfulness Sampler: Shambhala Authors on the Power of Awareness in Daily Life

Author: Shambhala Publications

This book is a delightfully arranged sampling of writings on mindfulness, Buddhism, and just plain living your life in general. From the very well-known to the relatively unfamiliar, this book of authors on the publications list at Shambhala Publications covers topics from the precepts of mindfulness, to communication, to addiction, and to relationships. It’s a great excursion into the different writers and writing styles on the subject and I recommend it for everyone – including those new to mindfulness and those with years of practice.

In the first chapter, Thich Nhat Hanh – in “Happiness and Peace Are Possible” – explains the fundamentals of mindfulness and how it can be nurtured in our own lives. He describes the healing miracle of mindfulness. As a gardener I am especially drawn to his vivid imagery:

If you look deeply at a flower, at its freshness and its beauty, you will see that there is also compost in it, made of garbage… The flower is also going to turn into garbage; but don’t be afraid! You are a gardener, and you have in your hands the power to transform garbage into glowers, into fruit, into vegetables. You don’t throw anything away, because you are not afraid of garbage. Your hands are capable of transforming it into flowers or lettuce or cucumbers. The same thing is true of your happiness and your sorrow. Sorrow, fear, and depression are all a kind of garbage. These bits of garbage are part of real life, and we must look deeply into their nature. You can practice in order to turn these bits of garbage into flowers.

He speaks beautifully and simple of things that are very complex and can take a lifetime to truly understand. He speaks of using nature as a bell to call us back to mindful awareness the way a crying baby calls it’s parents to attend to it. He softly encourages us to drive with awareness and avoid the autopilot effect. Such simple images convey that by small actions we can come to understand how to transform suffering into well-being. His path seems beautiful and full of joy, so it doesn’t seem to matter when I arrive.

In another favorite chapter – chapter 3 – zen teacher and pediatrician Jan Chozen Bays discusses meditation as the practice of ordinary life. She said that when the mind ” checks out” it tends to go one of three places, the past, the future, or the fantasy realm. “Is this bad?” one might ask. Well, Bays says it’s not something to feeling ashamed or guilty about, but perhaps it’s sad that “when we spend a lot of time with our body doing one thing while our mind is on vacation somewhere else,” it can mean that we aren’t really present for much of our life. “When we aren’t present,” she says, “it makes us feel vaguely but persistently dissatisfied.”

Mindfulness helps us become aware of the mind’s habitual and conditioned patterns of escape and allows us to try an alternative way of being in the world… Anxiety is fueled by thoughts of past and future. When we drop those thoughts, we drop anxiety and find ourselves at ease. How do we drop thoughts? We drop thoughts by temporarily withdrawing energy from the thinking function of the mind and redirecting it to the awareness function of the mind.

So all in all it was a wonderful book and I learned a lot and you should definitely read it… blah blah blah

Now for your mindfulness exercises for the week, from this book!

EXERCISE
Use Your Nondominant Hand

Use your nondominant hand for some ordinary tasks each day. These could include brushing your teeth, combing your hair, or eating with your nondominant hand for at least part of each meal. If you’re up for a big challenge. try using the nondominant hand when writing or when eating with chopsticks.Remind Yourself: Put a bandaid on your dominant hand and when you notice it, switch hands and use the nondominant hand. Or put a small sign on your bathroom mirror that says “Left Hand.”

EXERCISELeave No Trace

Choose one room in your house and for one week try leaving no trace that you’ve used that space. The bathroom or kitchen works best for most people. If you’ve been doing something in that room, cooking a meal or taking a shower, clean up in such a way that you leave no signs that you’ve been there, except perhaps the odor of food or fragrance of soap.Remind Yourself: Put a sign in the room you’ve chosen that says, “Leave No Trace.”

Today after completing this book I meditated for 5 minutes using these beautiful bells. If you’ve never done this before, simply sit comfortably and breath and watch your thoughts. If you catch yourself completely drawn into your thoughts, don’t judge, simply bring your awareness back to your breathing and watching your thoughts. When the video ends with a slightly higher and quicker bell slowly blink open your eyes, wiggle your hands and toes, and mindfully continue with your day. Namaste.

~ Day 16 ~~ Monday, December 29th, 2014 ~Find Out Where is Your Time GoingThe essence of self-discipline is doing the important thing rather than the urgent thing.– Barry Werner

Cheyenne-
Completed my anchor habit for 50 minutes today. Did recipe for morning routine including sun salutations. 4 minutes mindfully making cards of yoga flow to put up on the wall. Sitting meditation for 6 minutes on the qualities of the person I need to become. 2 minutes offering up my practice, 2 minutes chanting Om, and 10 minutes doing daily warm-up. 26 minutes of yoga and daily relaxation. I did the whole sequence from Om Yoga today, and even did a recipe that included head stand, shoulder stand, and back bending poses in addition to the sun salutation sequence. Felt good to hold my headstand for 9 full breaths and my shoulder stand for 10. Also, it’s 11:30 am and I’ve journaled for the day! Hooray! I think this is the earliest in the day I’ve been all caught up on journals. Thank you solitude and winter break!

Tonight after failing to find the new DharmaCore location Remy and I meditated at home in my new meditation room! I meditated on the qualities I need to become, reciting “I am…” Ten times for each quality. I feel like I have been focusing on organization and responsibility a lot this this week
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Today’s action: Carry around a small notepad or piece of paper today, and record, to the minute, how you spend your time. When you’re done, group similar tasks and total up the time you spend on them.

I’ve been feeling a strong sense of joy and accomplishment this weekend. I got caught up on both my weekend tasks and am totally on track for the week! I also got a little over an hour of housework done, and read an entire short book: What Now? By Ann Patchett! Feeling super productive and proud of Remy for being so productive, responsible, self-disciplined, and mindful too! We’ve gotten to spend a lot of time together since getting back from visiting family, and I’m feeling super close!

Tonight before bed I spent thirty minutes cleaning up the study and readying my new meditation space for daily practice. Next I spent 35 minutes mindfully writing the qualities of the person I need to become on notecards and sticking them to the wall where I can see them. Then I meditated on the qualities for 15 minutes. I repeated each phrase “I am… ” ten times and pictured myself embodying that quality. Got tired at the end but finished anyway.

Did my new habit for the first time today: creativity brainstorming. On Day 12 I scheduled new habits and today was my first day to do creative exercises. I didn’t get to it until today, but I did about an hour of it today! See creativity journal for more.

Today’s action: It doesn’t matter what form your list takes; the solution is the same.

Kill your list.

Really. Trash it all. If you can’t bring yourself to do something so extreme, ruthlessly cross off items that don’t interest you anymore. In the case of reading, ask yourself: which would be more exciting, going to the store or the library to choose a new book, or reading one from your current backlog? If it’s starting a new one, you can guess what I’m going to tell you to do.

The best to-do list has one item on it. Three max. If something is important and lasting, you’ll remember it. It’ll make its way onto your list. Use today to look at your lists, and if you can’t throw them out completely, at least limit them drastically. Your creativity, curiosity, productivity, and enthusiasm about life will all thank you.

I can’t believe I trashed my to do list! It was really difficult for my type-A personality, and I’ll admit I didn’t trash it entirely… but I did slim it down to three items, and I feel great!